NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Community and faith-based leaders are building a path to improve health care on the Peninsula.
Monday morning marked the launch of a center aiming to bridge the gap in racial health disparities.
Bishop Dwight Riddick, the chair of the Greater Peninsula C.A.R.E.S. Foundation, Inc., said they hope to change the trajectory of health in the community through education, coaching and resources.
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“Today begins a turning point in how we will begin to address many of the health concerns,” Riddick said.
Iris Lundy, Sentara Health's senior director of health equity, told 13News Now that hypertension, diabetes and access to care impact the community disparately.
“In South Hampton Roads and the Peninsula, some of these disparities are as great as they are anywhere in the country,” U.S. Sen. Mark Warner said.
The Sentara Foundation is pitching in with a $255,000 grant which will help the organization develop a center on the Peninsula.
“The community said we need things that can help us with our health prior to us even getting to your doors,” Lundy said.
The facility will include health prevention programs and help people navigate through the health system.
“Using the clergy as the trusted messenger means that people are much more likely to actually conform and get the health care that they so desperately need,” U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott said.
Sen. Warner hopes he can partner with the foundation to make one of his missions come to life.
“My hope and something I've been working on a lot is something called Community Development Financial Institution, CDFIs,” he said. “These are organizations that by the law have to lend about two-thirds of their lending into lower and moderate-income communities which again disproportionally are communities of color in Virginia.”